Tuesday 9 January 2018

Before & After: Adding a Side-Ruffle Detail to Shorts

Happy New Year!! I was shocked but not surprised to realize I sewed only 70% as many projects in 2017 as I did in 2016 - Not surprised because it's been a very hectic, unstable, weird year and work took a lot of my energy. That's now in the past and I can't wait for a more creative, productive (outside of work) and amazing year of teaching myself new things, not just in sewing! 

These shorts are still leftover from my 2017 archives - I made them for our recent Sri Lanka trip but it rained the majority of the time, and my Dubai-acclimatized body was actually too cold for shorts.. Hilarious to think I went to the jungle with them but the weather back home is actually more suited. I made the shorts themselves from scratch but in this post I just show how I added the ruffle detail to the sides (which could be done on pretty much any pair of shorts made out of a lighter fabric, same colour or contrasting).

Tutorials take a lot of time & effort to create, and I choose to make mine available for free. If you enjoy this guide, you can support me with a donation that feels right for you, here.


The top is a remake of this one.

I. I started by adjusting the shape of my shorts a bit, for a slightly higher cut towards the outer edges, and re-hemmed them.
II. Then I cut two pieces like below for the ruffles. Obviously the size can be anything you want - longer for a fuller ruffle.
III. Then I hemmed those pieces with a double-fold and zig-zagged the curved raw edge.
IV. After adding a basting stitch along the curved non-hemmed edge (the longest stitch on your machine) I pulled on the bobbin thread to gather the ruffle..
.. And placed it at the side seam of the shorts, folded in half, to check for the right amount of gathering. 
V. When I was happy with the way the ruffle looked, I just pinned it onto the side of the shorts, and hand-sewed in place on the reverse with a blind stitch (of course you could machine sew as well).
Last just repeat for the other side.
xo,

Julia

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